Posted on 05/27/2008 3:21:27 PM PDT by blam
Rag and bone cup dates to 300BC
Last Updated: 9:40PM BST 27/05/2008
The grandson of a rag and bone man who acquired a small metal cup is in line for a windfall after discovering it is a pure gold vessel dating back to the third or fourth century BC.
A rag and bone man gave his grandson the pure gold vessel, which is from the third or fourth century BC The piece could be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The 5½ in cup, believed to be from the Achaemenid empire, has two female faces looking in opposite directions, their foreheads decorated with a snake motif.
Experts were baffled by the piece, but laboratory analysis of the gold put it in the third or fourth century BC. The Achaemenid empire was based around Persia, but at its height stretched from Iran to Libya. It was wiped out by Alexander the Great in 330BC.
The gold cup was acquired in the late 1930s or early 1940s by rag and bone man William Sparks in Taunton, Somerset. He was a scrap metal dealer and before his death in the late 1940s he gave it to his young grandson John Webber.
Believing it to be brass or bronze, Mr Webber put the cup, along with other gifts, in a box and forgot about it until last year when he moved house.
Realising that it could be made from gold, he began to research the object, which he believes could be worth up to £500,000. Laboratory tests confirmed its age and that it had been painstakingly crafted from one piece of gold.
Mr Webber, 70, said: "My grandfather was originally a proper rag and bone man from Romany stock and lived in a caravan.
"My father died in the war and afterwards my grandfather gave me some things shortly before he died.
"Because he mainly dealt in brass and bronze, I thought that was what it was made from.
"I put it in a box and forgot about it. Then last year I moved house and took it out to have a look and I realised it wasn't bronze or brass.
"I sent it to the British Museum and the experts there hadn't seen anything like it before and recommended I had it tested at a laboratory."
The vessel will be sold at Duke's auction house in Dorchester, Dorset, on June 5. Guy Schwinge, a spokesman, said: "The scientific analysis of the cup speaks for itself. Bearing in mind the differing views of the experts it will be fascinating to see what happens on the day of the auction."
I assume a rag and bone man is a 'scrap metal' man today.(?)
Guy Schwinge Ping
“rag and bone man”
I was wondering about the term myself. I have never heard of it before.
I think he was a Gypsy, too...
It sure puts the stuff I find at the Goodwill to shame.
Wikipedia - Rag and Bone Man is a British phrase for a junk dealer. In the past, they would collect rags for converting to paper and bones for making glue and scrap iron(?). A great job for hardcore greenies.
I wish I had that cup.
Blam, you know I am fairly often a great skeptic of archeologist’s claims. But this story is just too cool! Thanks!
Not as good as my favorite Achaemenid rhyton at the Metropolitan Museum (http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/ancient_near_eastern_art/Vessel_terminating_in_the_forepart_of_a_fantastic_leonine/ViewObject.aspx?depNm=ancient_near_eastern_art&pID=0&kWd=&OID=30002952&vW=1&Pg=4&St=1&StOd=1&vT=1), but I still want it.
Think Sanford and Son, which was modeled on Steptoe and Son the UK TV series. They were Rag and Bone men.
a brass dealer mistook this for brass?
right.
Amazing condition considering all the hands it must have passed through. Incredible that no one recognized that it was gold. And old.
right.
And the difference in compensation for the full sale price of a find handed down by the rag and bone man as opposed to something just dug up this morning is what? Hmmm...
I dont follow - is there a reason why he would not want to disclose a freshly dug find?
Anything dug up after September 24, 1997, that is 10% or more metal and 300 years old or older belongs the government per the Treasure Act 1996. Some of the verbiage:
Where objects are found to be treasure, they belong to the Crown, unless a third party has been granted the right to treasure (called a "franchise") found in a particular area (a list of some such franchises is at pages 244-251 of Hill). Usually the national museums are involved (in England the British Museum, in Wales the National Museum of Wales). They provide expert evidence and guidance to the coroner. To encourage the reporting of finds, the finder is invariably rewarded with a payment representing the value of the find. etc etc etc
Treasure handed down from family you get to keep more of.
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Thanks Blam. |
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Rag and bone men, in their native habitat....
Wasn’t “Rag and Bone” a secret society at one of those Ivy League colleges that all those stuck-up nancyboys aspire to join?
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